One of Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Best Cards Finally Has a Rival

There are several good cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Eevee Grove set that don’t necessarily reinvent the wheel when it comes to meta decks, but make for nice additions overall. An example is the new Tsareena, which is deceptively powerful because it only has one attack that hits for 50, but it can be the first step to a control-oriented deck built to discard the opponent’s hand. Another example is how the new Hau Supporter made Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Incineroar Ex decks much better due to the extra 30 damage it can deal, but it’s also relatively delimited in terms of applications. Still, one new card finally gives an older one a run for its money.

Some Pokemon TCG Pocket cards only really last for a set or two when it comes to how much they are played. An example of this logic is Extradimensional Crisis’ Blacephalon, making for a fun deck with Turtonator, but now being mostly forgotten due to Flareon Ex decks. When it first came out, Giant Cape had very little competition as it was one of three Pokemon Tool cards in Space-Time Smackdown, and one of them never saw play. Now, Eevee Grove finally has a new Tool that can be as good as Giant Cape, and that’s Leftovers.

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Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Leftovers Can Give Giant Cape a Run For Its Money

The reason Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Giant Cape is one of the best Tools in the game, if not the best, is that it can be used on any Pokemon card regardless of other factors, and it adds 20 HP to that creature’s total. It’s very versatile, and it’s very rarely a dead card in a deck, making it desirable to have even just in one copy in most decks. Leftovers uses a similar principle, as it can be used on any Pokemon and it rarely becomes a useless card in a game because it heals 10 damage at the end of the turn.

Leftovers even gave Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Solgaleo Ex deck a buff because it counteracts the drawback of Sol Breaker, which is that Solgaleo Ex inflicts 10 damage on itself as recoil. With Leftovers on, the recoil damage is fundamentally canceled in most scenarios, and this only matters if Solgaleo Ex’s HP would reach 0 with the recoil – in which case, Leftovers doesn’t do anything. One could argue that having 20 extra HP beats passive healing most of the time, and that is partly true.

Pokemon TCG Pocket: Which Pokemon Tool is Better?

There are various pros and cons to this. These are:

• Giant Cape can prevent some Pokemon from being knocked out in a single attack or simply stay longer on the field, but the latter is even more applicable in the case of Leftovers, depending on the length of the game and the decks at play
• Leftovers only heals 10 damage at the end of the user’s turn, so it negates Poisons half of the time, whereas Giant Cape gives a flat 20 extra HP to resist all damage with
• Giant Cape’s extra HP rarely makes Pokemon actually survive longer, as the meta is focused on dealing a lot of damage quickly, and that’s usually more than half the HP of any Ex cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket anyway, so healing may be better

Some decks can benefit more from Giant Cape or Leftovers depending on their playstyle, whereas others may prefer “recoil” Pokemon Tools like Rocky Helmet and Poison Barb, or even no Tools at all. It remains to be seen how exactly Leftovers’ introduction will change the decklists moving forward, and while Giant Cape is still generally preferred in competitive decks, Leftovers has plenty of time to shine with little competition in its slot.